Study on costs, benefits and nature of an extended European Ocean Observing System : final report

The vision for an European Ocean Observation System (EOOS) is "a coordinating framework designed to align and integrate Europe's ocean observing capacity in the long-term; to promote a systematic and collaborative approach to collecting sustained information on the state and variability of our seas; and to underpin sustainable management of the marine environment and its resources" as set out in a consultation by European Marine Board and European Global Ocean Observing System (EuroGOOS) (European Marine Board and EuroGOOS, 2016). The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) programme has a framework for ocean observation, which includes the defintion of essential ocean variables (EOV). The EOV are expected to be collected as a minimum requirement of the EOOS and are divided into three broad domains; physics, biogeochemistry and biology and ecosystems, of the three domains the physics and biogeochemistry variables are the most established, with many of the biological and ecosystem variables still emerging. As a consequence, many of the activities identified in this report focused on the more mature physics and biogeochemistry domains. The objective of this study was to provide evidence to help guide the options for the establishment of an (EOOS) by exploring the potential costs and benefits. The study tasks were: task 1 to estimate the spending in EU Member States and Norway, task 2 to compare these estimates with a selection of third countries, task 3 to review existing studies on economic and societal befits of system integration and task 4 to identify needs over and above existing observation.